Stunted Growth
by Lack of Basis
Summary: She who should be more aware then any human that despite their undeniable appeal vampires had never truly been kind, they only survived to actively seek and attain their obsessions. AidouxOC
1. The Proposition

Disclaimer: I own nothing aside from the original characters

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_It happened to fast, she could not have portrayed any more foolishness, and she was paying the ultimate price for her betrayal._

_it was all so short lived, the reality of her situation, and his last gaze stung. his eyes glazed in understanding, piercing through her conscious with wild stabs. He knew who was at fault for this._

_her delicate body shook violently with tremors and waves of tears._

The night was blisteringly cold, the slight breeze chilled her goose bump covered skin. The tall looming wrought iron gates she stood in front of were frosted over with the threat of winter. Clasping her hands together she blew warm air towards frozen glove covered fingers. She sighed in impatiens and ground her chattering teeth softly, just how long did he intend to make her wait.

"Good evening. You're Hara Etsuko I presume?"

Etsuko glanced to her left and observed the smiling girl who offered a greeting. She had shoulder length layered brown hair, and deep wide brown eyes. She was clad in a black school uniform with white embellishments. Next to her was a tall boy with piercing eyes and silver hair, who glanced towards Etsuko indeferantly choosing to not supply a greeting of his own.

Etsuko smiled lightly affirming it was her and returned the girls friendly greeting.

"If you will please follow us, we will show you to Chairman Cross's office."

Nodding curtly she began to follow the pair into the school grounds. While they were walking the girl had taken the liberty of introducing herself as Yuki Cross, she gently nudged the boy beside her to prompt him after he had failed to introduced himself.

"Zero" he sated listlessly.

"Kiryu Zero" Yuki amended sighing over his impolite response.

They had entered a large building near the end of the campus. The warmth of the building gently soothed the trio's tender skin as they continued up flights of stairs and through numerous hallways in relative silence. They came to a halt in front of a plain oak door. When neither of her guides proceeded she glanced curiously towards Yuki who quickly explained that she and Zero had prefect duties to attend to and that they would not be accompanying her.

Etsuko thanked them for the help and as the pair departed she knocked lightly on the oak door. There came a muffled reply to which she responded by opening the office door.

"Etsuko-chan, I'm so glad to see you." The chairman beamed at her over the rim of the golden trimmed tea cup he was cheerily sipping from, softly gesturing for her to take the seat opposite him and the desk he sat behind. She strode into the warm office and closed the door behind her.

"Good evening Cross-san." She replied hesitantly while sitting down in the plush chair offered to her. His cheery welcome was disheartening. She had envisioned the man who wrote to be a person of serious nature. It was of concern to find that he was quite the opposite. She had found people of his temperament to have the tendency of being unpredictable.

"I hope the trip here was pleasant." He stated simply while pouring her a cup of tea, she accepted the tea and paused to take a sip, waiting for the warm liquid to coax the words from her sore throat. There was a slight hesitation, but she felt that they were no longer in need of the formalities.

"Chairman I do hope that you understand that my only intention in coming here is to have my questions answered."

Previously she had given little thought in coming to cross academy at all, it was deemed unnecessary when she had first heard from the chairman. But as time dwindled on and information sources bacame scarce she found relief in having received the letter. The only slight draw back was the request to meet in person. It had almost taken a full month to write in response. As she twisted over the details that she had already collected attempting to delay, but nothing new had been found, and with no other options left she reluctantly agreed to the chairman's conditions. Answers were needed and his letters seemed to make it clear that he was capable of providing them.

"Etsuko-san I have an option for you. But you must understand that I can promise little. At best you may find some information of interest."

Her eyes widened momentarily as the chairman spoke seriously, having thought that this was the source that she was in need of and believing him to now be withholding information was greatly disappointing. Clenching her jaw in irritation, dimly aware that she was cornered and realizing that being this needy meant that she was at a complete disadvantage. Surmising that the chairman had his reasons for caution yet still annoyed with the premonition of cryptic partial answers she struggled. The bitter knowledge that she had gone to long with out new information was even more limiting then the discomforting idea of grabbing straws at another's mercy.

"I think that you should consider continuing your schooling here, I want to place you into the night classes." His keen eyes watched as the color drained from her face.

Schooling, she wasn't exactly prepared for his offer. To be truthful she had given little thought to ever continuing her interrupted studies. She was already eighteen and missing a good year of her formal education but really this was to off base. His suggestion just seemed like a distraction an awfuly unrealistic one at that.

However she did have to commend him on figuring out that finishing her education had been a previous goal. But that goal had been made during a very different time. Currently other more pressing issues sought top priority on her list. Feeling now that her frustration must have been too evident in her letters. It must have been clear to the chairman that she was at a stand still. The fact that she was willing to meet with him was confirmation enough. There were no other places left to look. Cornered and desperate, the chairman was in control of the pieces now and leaving empty handed had never been an option. There were no other choices she was forced to continue from here.

"I'll attend."

"Wonderful." The chairman beamed before continuing. "However there is a small stipulation."

-

How annoying that chairman was exceptionally conniving, it had been awhile since she had been around them. Their presence a strong reminder of mistakes, a red flag that was avoided at all times necessary. She had slim to no tolerance left for their kind.

She fidgeted in her pristine new white uniform, readjusting her prefect's badge, and grimacing over the chairman's decision to place her in the moon dormitories. The thought of attending night classes became extremely nerve wracking upon learning what her classmates were. The mistrust of vampires ran too deep, she was disgruntled to find it already jarring her mobility. Wobbling up the steps towards the front door, taking in ragged puffs of cool night air, she faltered hand poised inches from the door handle.

_Breathe. Just breathe._

"Hey you, who are you?"

Her spine went ridged as soon as the velvety cool voice reached her ears. Withdrawing her hand and pivoting slowly. Her eyes came level with the sight of a white collar mere inches from her nose she nearly stumbled backwards into the door. Having failed to realize that a creature like that was in such close proximity was a bad omen. Glancing upwards she deftly took in the appearance of the man who startled her. His blond hair was gently tousled by the cold winds that blew past them, his deep calculative blue eyes held her gaze unblinkingly, and his fangs ominously glistened in the moon light. He was undeniably handsome, her heart beat slowed as she released a shaky breath her eyes narrowed back in defense as his intimidating stare left her weak in the knees. Etsuko inhaled forcing a gentle response despite the rude address.

"I'm a new student"

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Author's note: okay so this is try number two the first post of this chapter was horrid in all senses of the word I'm praying that this attempt is at least semi-decent. I try to edit as thoroughly as possible but I find that I occasionally drop the ball on that. I'm sure someone will be able to tell me if there are any critical editing errors that need remedying. I'm hoping that this chapter isn't to short I felt it ended where it should have. I'm sporadically working on the next chapter so no clue as to when I'll finish that. ( not to mention that most of the plot isn't exactly panned out yet for the rest of the story xD ) I'm also debating a change in rating but I'll have to see where the story ends up going before anythings definitive.


	2. New Accommodations

Note: See first chapter for disclaimer

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His piercing eyes regarded her answer with disdain. The surprise that a human would be let into the moon dormitories was short lived as conclusions involving an undeservedly well respected chairman were quickly drawn up to supply an explanation.

"The chairman is thoroughly naïve, I urge you not to delude yourself into thinking, even for a moment that your presence will be tolerated here."

His eyes narrowed as fragments of irritation splashed his words. Etsuko nearly snorted at his reply, welcomed was far from what she had anticipated. The nerve of the man before her was irksome enough, and the irritation levels only reached new highs when paired with the frustration of her initial attraction.

It was only natural for a human to be attracted to a vampire, she was not dim witted enough to believe that she possessed an iron clad will of resistance, unfortunately she still found it appalling that her natural defenses were so lacking. She who should be more aware then any human that despite deceptive appeal vampires had never truly been kind, they only survived to actively seek and attain their obsessions.

"Aidou, please do try to be more considerate to the new student."

Etsuko nearly pealed out of her skin when she heard the voice of another. The light footsteps had been much too soft for her weak ears to hear approaching. Nerves twitching on end as she was reduced to squinting ludicrously as the pale moon light dimmed furthering her numerous handicaps.

"Please forgive me for startling you, I've been instructed to greet you by master Kaname, I'm Takuma Ichijo."

Ichijo's voice had an unexpected light happiness to it, he seemed gentle and calm as he bowed politely.

"Hara Etsuko."

Etsuko's response was small and horrifyingly meek. Blushing faintly as she bowed and managed to hold her gaze steady. There was no need for her to be cowardly. None of the vampires here were in need of a greater advantage over her and she would be damned if she gave them such an opportunity.

Aidou scoffed impatiently and elegantly maneuvered around Etsuko and into the dormitories wrinkling his nose as he passed.

"Er… Please forgive Hanabusa-san. He's a bit ill mannered towards… some."

As Ichijo lamely tried to cover for his friend's impolite and increasingly poor behavior he extended his arm politely towards the open doorway in invitation.

The main lounge of the dormitories was elegantly decorated with plush furniture and lavish paintings. Etsuko glanced around the room curiously drinking in details until Ichijo quietly cleared his throat. Glancing to her right she noted the presence of a maid in uniform who bowed when Etsuko's roaming eyes landed on her.

"Miss.Hara I will show you to your room now."

"Thank you."

Etsuko turned to face Ichijo and bowed her voice sounding slightly withdrawn as she bid him good night and turned to follow the maid up the stairs and to her room.

Thoughts were on over drive dancing through her mind with little to no regard for the dull throbbing headache they had triggered. Attempting to sift through them was proving to be challenge enough, sighing deeply as she buried her face into the plush pillow that sat a top the heavenly bed that she laid sprawled across. Blinking her eyes slowly and impatiently resigning her mind to the fact that no matter how hard she tried sleep wasn't an option. Sitting upright and reaching for the only bag that she had mind to bring with on the trip here, she nimbly pulled out her reading glasses and a binder chalked full of organized papers.

Every night without fail this binder was thoroughly examined in ritual like fashion it took a good four to six hours per night. Not a single page was allowed to be left unturned. New conclusions were drawn, old found implausible, or added to with slight changes in detail. The cycle was never ending save for the reprieve of desperately scrounging for new leads.

She raised her unwilling body off the bed and padded over to the small wooden desk located in the front left corner of the room. Placing the heavy dark green binder on the desk she began to thumb through the first section of seven. Almost all of the information in the first six coded tabs, she knew by heart, but the seventh tab always took more time.

The very last tab contained the only pieces of information that had not been filed, the majority of them were increasingly old but on ocassion (if luck allowed) new leads would be filter in acorrdingly. But the tab mostly consisted of what did not fit, the odd outliers that had yet to find there places in the equation.

Previously the one whom she had dedicated her very soul to had rightfully been taken from her. The only remaining fragments of the sin that she had been infatuated with were now reduced to being contained and embody with in the pages of a binder.

--

A soft rap on the door shifted Etsuko into an alert and functioning mode. Hastily wiping the small trail of saliva from the corner of her mouth on the back of her hand, surreptitiously smoothing over any wrinkles that might be detectable on her uniform, and stuffing her binder into an available desk drawer before answering. The binder was not meant for anyone else's courious eyes.

"Come in."

"Good evening Etsuko-chan master Kaname has requested to meet with you before classes start."

A gently smiling Ichijo greeted her politely inclining his head as he waited patiently in the doorway for her. Etsuko gently pushed the desk chair in and proceed to follow Ichijo while quietly returning his kind greeting. She eyed him mildly skeptical as they walked through the dorm halls in relative silence. She possessed not one iota of trust for the seemingly kind one, blindly trusting anyone who had nice manners without further examination was out of the question. Feeling now that it was more important then ever to air on the side of caution given her current circumstances.

The pair approached two large oak doors and Ichijo knocked softly before opening the door for Etsuko, proceeding to close the door as he trailed after her.

"Kaname-sama, Hara-san is here to see you."

Etsuko narrowed her eyes ever so slightly as she took in the appearance of the new vampire. He was seated in the center of the library on a maroon love seat, one arm causally resting over its low back, as he gazed transfixedly at the far window of the library with soft eyes.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

Kaname broke the silence as his eyes roved to focus on Etsuko's pale heart shaped face, His eyes no longer showing even the faintest traces of there seemingly momentary softness, his expression remained neutrally polite, and isolated.

Etsuko bowed awkwardly choosing to remain silent as she allowed her gaze to wonder around the room. Looking into his dead eyes was triggering a state of uneasy from deep within her, he was intimidating, and the tangible feel of her confidence slipping left her intertwining her fingers stiffly to keep them from twitching about in nervous fashion.

"I believe it to be a necessity for me to extend to you a warm welcome, I am hoping that you will fair well in this class. I have asked Ichijo to see to it that you become well adjusted."

"I thank you for the kind welcome."

Etsuko swallowed the lump in her throat her voice quivering softly as she spoke. This vampire held an evident authority about him, she felt nearly nauseous in his presents.

"Etsuko-san why don't you wait downstairs for me I have to speak to Kaname-sama privately."

Etsuko nodded while simultaneously opening the oak doors. She traveled briskly through the hallways in search of the stairs, clutching her heart to will its erratic pace to slow to a natural rhythm. That one now held classification among some of the worst she'd encountered. He made it crystal clear by presence alone that he tolerated little, including the arrival of a human in his dormitories.

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Author's Note: First things first thanks to my very first reviewer Rosenkreuz Orden and of course thank you to every one who's read the story up to now. I found it really inspiring to work on the next chapter knowing that the first had actually been read xD. Most of the story is starting to fall into place for me and I'm starting to think that this story will end up being a bit longer then I had first thought. It's been helpful for me to have a better sense of direction for the main plot but there are still a lot of the finer points to work out which I will hopefully get around to soon. I think this chapter was to short but I had originally intended to add this to the first xD I shall try my best to make sure the next is more generous in length.


	3. Situations Arise

Note: See first chapter for disclaimer

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Kaname retuned his stare to the library window, watching fondly after Yuki as she attempted to control the horde of people waiting for the night class to arrive. Her forceful directing nearly brought a faint smile to his face. That is to say until he remembered the issue at hand, how to deal with Hara.

"Given your formal connections to the council of ancients I'm sure that you were informed of the scandal that took place some years ago."

Kaname paused almost unsure as to how much information should be given directly to Ichijo. The matter at hand was fairly clear to him after having discussed Hara's presence with Chairman Cross, who had given direct details as to what Hara was after.

"When the grandchild of a respected senior council member ran away, the little details that those investigating were able to gather were never released to society"

Ichijo nodded unsure as to where this was leading, Isao Saiki had run away nearly three years ago and Ichijo had heard nothing of him since. The Saiki family was rather prominent and social. Having only met Isao once before it had been surprising to have known of his existence at all given that the man himself attended a few customary parties the members of society held and little else, he was very unlike his socialite family. The man had been of few words, it would be hard for Ichijo to describe him as anything more than unremarkable. It was no shock that the few who managed to find out about the scandal had not been previously aware of his existence, instead they had assumed that it had been a sibling of Isao's.

"The council made sure that only a select few were aware of Saiki's reasons for leaving. In short he had left to be with the human that he had fallen in love with, or more precisely Etsuko Hara. The pair of them had managed to evade hunters for nearly two years before Sakai's informal execution."

Ichijo fought to keep his mouth closed, pressing his lips into a thin line. These odd situations had happened before through out history but more often then not the couples in question had been hunted down and murdered. Those sorts of relationships never really boded well for either of the species, the executions had almost all been carried out by humans, but on some occasions vampires had taken over. It seemed that neither side had warmed to the idea of intermixing.

-

Etsuko scanned the full room that she was waiting in. Various vampires appeared to be lounging about impatiently for their master to guide them to class. The sight its self was one of pathetic devotion, she nearly pitied the creatures. That is to say until they started staring at her. It was one thing to take a quick glance but when a room full of people were down right staring it was just plain rude. Taking in deep breathes she decided to ignore the obvious.

"Why is a human here?"

"Has master Kaname approved of this?"

Sighing she wrapped her arms closer around her upper torso, this was too irritating. No one here should be concerning themselves with her. They should have better things to keep busy with.

"Why don't you bother answering their questions? Won't it make it easier to just keep them quiet?"

Her skin began to crawl when the vibrations from the chilling rich voice crept toward her ears. Turning her head to the side she raised a brow towards the rude blond and his mocking sneer.

"I don't believe it's my place to explain the situation I'm sure that your master would be more then willing to explain."

The mocking sneer slipped off of Adio's face momentarily while he digested the snubbing he was receiving. Pausing he stepped forward leaving little room for breath or comfort, titling his head, and placing his cool lips centimeters away from her ear before speaking.

"We all want the real reason no one is naïve enough to think that you're here to play little miss prefect."

Adio pulled away narrowing his eyes at the gawking girl in front of him before retreating to a group of others near the front of the room. He nearly smirked when he felt her frigid glare amid at the back of his head. He had no intentions of tolerating that kind of behavior for long.

Inhaling deeply to clam her haywire nerves was completely failing. The feelings that he stirred in her had long since been dormant. It was shocking to the system to revel in an ignored attraction. His sent had been so subtle but the lavender lingered near, shamelessly misguiding the purpose of her deep breaths. The overwhelming smell did little to quell her anger. These feelings, it was almost as if she was betraying herself. That creature did not need the advantage of knowing that she had such a loose grip on her control in his presence.

-

The light in the library was faint and near uselessness Etsuko was glaring at the pages of her text, only to reread lines several times before piecing the meaning together. She was certain by now that the light was not the only reason that the pages were blurry. Her eyes had started to ache from over use sometime ago. She had gotten out of her classes a few hours ago head spinning from the knowledge lodged into it. Apparently the chairman had neglected to mention how advanced the night classes were. Given that she had devoted nearly three hours to the work already only for it to be half completed. Etsuko was not nearly what one might consider a genius but she was by no means ignorant either. Glancing at her silver wristwatch again she dejectedly began to scoop up her books and head back towards the moon dormitories.

In a weeks time she would have to begin switching Yuki and take round duties, If she could not manage to figure out all her home work then she would be in a bit of a bind. Class ended at 10:00 and her patrol shift ran from 1:00 to 6:00. She planned to do more research during the day while the vampires were asleep, it was a wonderful opportunity. One which did not need the shadow of home work looming over head. However it meant that all home work had to be completed within the allotted three hour time frame.

Head throbbing lightly from the dilemma she nimbly climbed the stairs to the upper level of the dormitories. Coming to a halt in front of her room she paused in horror. The door was cracked open allowing a small stream of pale light to seep into the dark motionless hallway. Definitely out of place, she would have never left it open not with something so important left inside. Hands shaking and pulse running sky high she gently nudged the door.

Etsuko let out a small exclamation of relief and recognition. Nearly laughing at her shaking hands, the situation really was not all that humors but her nervousness had been a bit much. There resting face down on the table in a chair with his back turned toward her was Ichijo. She let out a small giggle and walked to the table placing her books down she gently shook his shoulder.

"Takuma-san you should go and sleep in your own room."

It seemed that Ichijo was in a rather deep state of sleep for a simple shaking had yet to awaken him. Etsuko found it hard to keep her laughter in she had not pegged the vice president to be such a heavy sleeper. She gasped when his hand reached out and grabbed hold of her wrist his head lifted and his stunning eyes blinked up at her hazily. She froze stiff with the realization that the sleepy face belonged to Adio.

Laughter having died immediately in her throat, she quickly yanked her hand out of his grasp. Her deep glaring did little to unsettle her uninvited and unwelcome guest as he stretched lazily. He didn't even bat an eye lash when she proceeded to open the door for him nor did he seemingly take the hint.

"I'm here to help you under Master Kaname's request."

Gritting her teeth she closed the door, this was possibly one of the worst things she could hear right now no one needed to be meddling with her reasons for being here. It was beginning to look like she would need to speak to Kaname again sooner then she would have liked.

"I don't believe that there is anything that you will be able to assist me with."

Etsuko's mouth dropped as she observed Adio calmly reading over the home work that she had just been working on. She promptly walked over to the table and snatched the paper out of his hands. It was none of his business if she did not understand the homework. Adio rolled his eyes as she crossed her arms indignantly.

"Out of the small amount of work you have completed the majority of the answers are wrong."

His smug wicked little smile did not help the fact that the comment made her blush. Calling in to question her intelligence was not really a fair game when he had years on her.

"That's what you're here to help me with then?"

"Yes, Kananme-sama noticed that you weren't exactly up to par this evening. I'll be your tutor of sorts until you can figure things out. As you can see I'm not exactly holding my breath, especially after reading that."

Etsuko turned her head towards the window as her blush deepened, if that conceited smile got any bigger then she was bound to slap it off his face, he was vindictive enough without all the extra ammunition. She clenched and unclenched her fists mulling over the offer, extra help really might be needed at this rate but she was unsure as to how much help he would really be able to give. He might just find it enjoyable to fill up the time he should have been helping with an unnecessary amount of taunting.

"Fine, you can come here tomorrow after class."

Knowing that the matter was settled Adio practically waltzed across the room closing the door behind him. Kaname had given perhaps one of his worst punishments yet, the girl was unbearable. He had originally had absolutely no intentions of helping what so ever, if he had been able to hold his tongue in front of Kanmae this evening then he would not be stuck with grunt work as awful as this. He definitely did not like the girl and he was bond to give her hell for this punishment even if she was not directly responsible for it, some how he knew it was her fault that this had come about.

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Authors notes:

Yay! another chapters out, I realize that this one took me a little while but I genuinely have a lot of things to take care of now that I'm back in school. Honestly to me it doesn't feel like it's been that long since I last posted but that's just because I do too much xD. Once again thank you to all my readers and reviewers.

Oh and athanasimikee essentially you have everything down hopefully this chapter cleared up the last part of it for you. He is definitely no longer living, so no she's not searching for him. I promise more will be reveled as the story progress hopefully it's not confusing to follow and most of you readers were able to think a long the same lines as athanasimikee xD it's hard for me to tell when I'm writing if the story isn't going to be clear to others… anyway enough of my rambling I'll try to get some work done on the next chapter.


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